Attachment to street-cars.



J. N. NIXON.

ATTACHMENT T0 STREET CARS.

APPLIOATION FILED APR.2B,1908. T

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Patented May 18,

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J. N. NIXON.

ATTACHMENT T0 STREET CARS,

' APPLIGAIION FILED APR.28,190B.

921 ,8'7'7a Patented May 18, 1909.

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J. N. NIXON.

ATTACHMENT TO- STREET CARS.

APPLIOATIO N FILED APR. 28, 190B.

Paten ted May 18, 1909.

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UNITED STATES PA ATTACI-Ill/IENT 'lO STREET-CARS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMEs NEWTON NIXON, of the city of Winnipeg, in theProvince of Manitoba, Canada, painter, have in vented certain new anduseful Improvements in Attachments to Street-Cars, of which thefollowing is the specification.

My invention relates to improvements in attachments to street cars, moreespecially an attachment which is carried by the trucks of the car andoperated by the motorman, and the object of the invention is to providea simple mechanism on the car, which when operated will determine thedirection of a car at a switch, and which is absolute in so far that itdoes not require a movable rail at the switch to throw the car from themain line to the switch.

It consists essentially of sets of similar rods carried in opposingpairs by the side frame of the trucks, the said rods being slidable andhaving enlarged ends, connecting cables between the adjacent ends of thesimilarly placed rods of the respective sets, standards at either end ofthe car, chains connecting the forward and rear free ends of the rods tothe respective standards and a handle for op erating the standards, theparts being arranged and constructed as hereinafter more particularlydescribed.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a double truck car supplied with myinvention, a portion of the front of the car being broken away to showthe operating handle. Fig. 2 is an enlarged, detailed, perspective viewof one of the side frames of a truck showing a set of supports for theside bars bolted to the side frame of the truck. Fig. 3 is an enlarged,detailed, perspective view of one of the side bars. Fig. 4 is anenlarged, detailed, perspective view of the lower end of one of thestandards showing the chains and themanner in which they are secured.Fig. 5 is an enlarged, detailed, perspective view of the support holdingthe bars to the frame. Fig. 6 is a plan view of a car supplied with myinvention the position of the'parts being shown when the front truck ofthe car has taken to the rails of a right hand switch. Fig. 7 is a planview of a car supplied with my invention the position of the parts beingshown when the front truck of the car has taken to the rails of a lefthand switch.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in each figure.

In operating car systems, the present tend- Specifieation of LettersPatent.

Application filed April 28, 1908.

ported on the floor of the car.

Patented May 18, 1909.

Serial No. 429,757.

ency appears to provide a movable rail or frog for directing the carfrom the main line to the switch, and such frog is operated either by amechanism on the car or by a switch: man. My invention avoids thenecessity of having this movable frog, and the rails are at all times ina set position with regard to each other. Advantage is taken of the factthat the trucks may be turned or swung and in this way cause the wheelsto gri or run toward the rails of one track and l eave or run away fromthe other rail of the track.

Referring to the drawings, A is the car body which is supported onforward and rear trucks B B, respectively, such. trucks being attachedto the car by means of the ordinary center bearings O C and pins D,

around which the trucks turn as a center.

E are the side frames of the trucks being of any approved form and E arethe journal boxes carrying the axles of the wheels F F G are theordinary spiral springs cushioning the journal boxes.

H H are sets of rods somewhat longer than the truck side frames and aregrouped in pairs, a pair to each truck. The rods are each fitted withenlarged ends H H and must be of fairly good size, somewhere about 1} to1% steel rod. It is desirable that one of the ends of the rod beremovable, and this could be done by threading the end of the rod andscrewing an end of larger size to it, as shown in Fig. 3 at H. Theenlarged ends of the rods carry rings H I I are supports for holding therods to the trucks and such may be formed from a hand passing around therod and bolted through its ends, by bolts P, to the truck side frame.When the rods are in position in the supports they must be free toslide. forwardly or backwardly until the enlarged and abuts thesupporting bar I.

J J are cables connecting the adjacent ends of the similarly placed rodsof each set, the cables being connected to the rods simply by passingthrough the loops H and tying back on themselves.

K K are standards at the forward and rear end of the car, respectively,the said standards being free to turn in bearings K sup- Each standardis formed with an enlarged lower end to which the chains, as hereinafterexplained, are attached, and the upper end is squared at L to receivethe handle of the lever L.

M M, M M are sets of chains, those M pass ing from the forward ends ofthe front set of rods to the standard K, and those M from the rearwardend of the rear set of rods to the standard K The chains are fastened tothe rods by linking to the rings H and are held to the standard byU-shaped rods N passing through the standard and supplied at their endswith nuts i screwing over a plate N With the rod H H in the centralposition, i. 6., extending beyond the bars I equally at either end, thechains M M have each an equal number of turns around the end of thestandard and. the turns are in such a direction that when one rolls offthe other rolls on. The chains M M are arranged in the same manner asthose M, and further when the right hand chain of those M rolls up, thatof those M must roll off. In this way it will be seen that I have a continuous connection around the car, the whole being operated by thehandle L. There must be su'flicient room at each end, between theconnecting points of the chains with the standards to allow forsufficient rolling up of the chain to bring the enlarged ends of therods against the bars I.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 6 and 7, when a car approaches aswitch, the sim le turning of the handle L throws it to tie switch orkeeps it on the through line. l/Vhen the caris within ten of fifteenfeet of the switch the motorman throws the lever to the rightor left,depending on which side the switch is. The operation previous to theposition of the car, as shown in Fig. 6, would be as below. The motormanwould turn the handle L in a left hand rotation, beginning about tenfeet from the switch and gradually tightening as he nears the switch.This by virtue of the chains, the rods and cables pulls the rods on theleft hand side of the car forward till the ends H of the rods abut therear supporting bars I. The tendency of this is to turn the trucks ontheir center point and this causes the wheels on the right and side togrip or run onto the right hand rail and leave the left hand. It will benoticed that one of the rails 0 passes through the switch and the other0 is continuous with the switch, the other main line rail and switchrail, past the switch, being supplied by rails P P.

In following the above explanation it will be seen that the right handwheels of the trucks will stay on the rail 0 and run away from the rail0, and when the right hand wheels take the switch the left hand wheelswill be carried by the rail 1?. When the motorman feels that the wheelsof the front truck have gripped the switch rails he re leases slightly,and when he considers the rear truck wheels on the switch rails he releases entirely. If it were desired, when approaching, to keep the caron the through line the lever L would be turned with the right handrotation, which in a manner similar to that above explained would causethe left hand wheel of the trucks to gri the left hand rail or that O,and the right and rails would follow through on the railsO and P,respectively. It is considered that a further description as applied totaking a left hand switch, as shown in Fig. 7 is unnecessary, as theoperation is simply the reverse to that of the right hand switch, whichhas been fully explained.

It is to be understood that although I. have shown the rods H, H?supported from beneath the side frames of the truck yet their positionhas not necessarily to be there, and I wish it to be understood that anymanner in which they may be supported or placed in order to give theturning effect to the trucks comes within the scope of my invention.

that I claim as my invention is:

In a device of the class described the combination with a set of doubletrucks supporting the car body of sets of slidable rods car-' ried bythe side frames of the trucks, there being a set to a truck, the saidrods having enlarged ends adapted to abut the supports holding the rodsto the side frames, cables connecting the adjacent ends of the rods ofthe opposing sets, standards mounted-at the forward and rear end of thecar body, chains connecting the forward ends, respectively, of thefrontset of rods to' the lever end of the front standard, chains connectingthe rear ends of the rear set of rods to the lower end of the rearstandard, and a handle adapted to operate the standards, as and for thepurpose specified.

Signed at Winnipeg, in the Province of Manitoba, this 20th day of April1908.

JAS. NEW-TON NIXON.

In the presence of- JAs. M. TAPLEY, V GERALD S. RoXBUReH.

